Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-264088 published on Sep. 13, 1996 discloses an acceleration detecting device that includes a hollow housing, a weight pivotally supported in the hollow housing for being rotated in response to an applied acceleration, a cam mounted on the weight to be rotated integrally with the weight, and a contact assembly electrically closed by rotation of the weight. The contact assembly always contacts the cam to apply a biasing force to the cam to keep the weight at an initial position. When the weight rotates against the biasing force applied from the electrical contacts to the cam, the cam electrically closes the contact assembly to generate an electrical signal.
The acceleration detecting device described above suffers from the disadvantage that as the weight keeps rotating, the contact assembly keeps bending. Accordingly, the contact assembly can experience plastic deformation due to frequent rotations of the weight. As this results, the contact assembly may not return the weight to the initial position so that the contact assembly may remain closed after disappearance of the acceleration.
In light of the foregoing, a need exists for an acceleration detecting device that is not susceptible to the same disadvantages and drawbacks as other known devices.
It would be desirable to provide an acceleration detecting device that is able to reliably return the weight to its initial position.
It would also be desirable to provide an acceleration detecting device that is able to reliably open and close the contact assembly.